Health workers in Northern Ireland will not be left out in the cold.
As the trade union side of the NHS staff council prepare to meet Steve Barclay Secretary of State for UK Health and Social care, UNISON members in Northern are planning 2 days of strike action on March 31st and April 3rd. UNISON members are currently on a month long schedule of action short of strike which may be extended into May.
UNISON's region wide industrial action committee has stated that no-one is talking to health workers here. We know that UNISON centre colleagues will fight hard for pay and that they will insist that any new pay improvement is fully funded. Our health service will need a share of that funding via the Barnett Formula.
But our health service is devolved and in the absence of an Executive and a minister Chris Heaton Harris Secretary of State for Northern Ireland holds the purse strings. He has twice refused to meet us. He and his NIO team needs to change their mind. Workers in other devolved parts of the UK - Scotland and Wales - had their voices heard. It is entirely unacceptable at that no one is talking to health unions here.
Industrial action will not be stood down until health workers here are treated with some respect.
If there is no talk - we still walk.